June 08, 2009
following added
I upgraded the template and added where any readers out there can follow me. Right now I have no followers.
Just a link
Texas Public Policy Foundation essentially does what I intended this blog to do. "The Foundation’s mission is to improve Texas by generating academically sound research and data on state issues, and by recommending the findings to opinion leaders, policymakers, the media and general public." The Foundation is "guided by the core principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility, private property rights, free markets and limited government." My kind of people...
I wish I could keep up on everything. I hear and read stuff in the paper and on the news every day. My intentions are to come home, do research, and put it on here so that people can make an informed vote. I have a tray full of topics to look into. President "The Change" is generating more subject matter than I can keep up with.
Anyhow... Check out the site. Hope you find it useful.
I wish I could keep up on everything. I hear and read stuff in the paper and on the news every day. My intentions are to come home, do research, and put it on here so that people can make an informed vote. I have a tray full of topics to look into. President "The Change" is generating more subject matter than I can keep up with.
Anyhow... Check out the site. Hope you find it useful.
January 26, 2009
Lately...
Since I last posted anything on here, we moved, started a new job, graduated fire academy a second time, built a house, are expecting our third kid, missed a presidential election, saw the near-demise of the TTC, and other things. I plan on getting back up to date with this blog, but it won't be in the near future.
March 02, 2007
Public/State/Educational employees and the TTC
Teacher, municipal worker, state worker? HB 1880 has also been drafted saying that portions of your retirement money cannot be invested in the Trans Texas Corridor. If you contribute to these funds...
Employees Retirement System of Texas
Judicial Retirement System of Texas Plan Two
Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Texas County and District Retirement System
Texas Municipal Retirement System
... HB 1880 says "A public retirement system may not invest money the retirement system manages ... in a private toll road facility, including a facility on the Trans-Texas Corridor" So if you oppose the TTC and are a public employee, voicing your support of HB 1880 may interest you.
Read the full text of HB 1880 here.
Employees Retirement System of Texas
Judicial Retirement System of Texas Plan Two
Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Texas County and District Retirement System
Texas Municipal Retirement System
... HB 1880 says "A public retirement system may not invest money the retirement system manages ... in a private toll road facility, including a facility on the Trans-Texas Corridor" So if you oppose the TTC and are a public employee, voicing your support of HB 1880 may interest you.
Read the full text of HB 1880 here.
TTC Update
Within the last week senators and citizens questioned transportation commissioners in a hearing over the Trans-Texas Corridor. (You'll find links concerning the corridor on the right margin of this page). Below is an Associated Press article about the hearing.
Legislature is getting on board with the citizens to stop the Corridor. In addition the senate commitee hearings, Rep. Kolkhorst (Brenham) has drafted a bill, HB 1881, repealing the Trans Texas Corridor.
Please voice your support of HB 1881 and elimination of the TTC.
Read the full text of HB 1881 - Repeal of the Trans Texas Corridor here.
Find your senator here. Tell them how you feel.
Here's the AP article from the San Angelo Standard-Times.
KELLEY SHANNON, The Associated Press
Friday, March 2, 2007
AUSTIN — Before a crowd of people angry over the Trans-Texas Corridor, state senators grilled transportation commissioners Thursday about the huge toll road project and why Interstate 35 couldn’t be widened instead.
The commissioners gave some financial estimates of expanding the interstate and said they would provide more.
Commission chairman Ric Williamson said the dense population along the interstate and lack of public money were reasons to opt for the Trans-Texas Corridor, a superhighway expected to be built by a private firm.
In all, the project is envisioned as a $184 billion 4,000-mile network of toll roads, rail lines and utilities.
Its first segment would run a few miles east of and parallel to Interstate 35 down the center of the state. That plan has infuriated rural landowners in its path who stand to lose farms and ranches and longtime family property.
Their complaints figured heavily into the Texas governor’s race last year — the Trans-Texas Corridor is a pet project of Gov. Rick Perry — and they highlighted Thursday’s daylong public hearing of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.
“We’re ranchers. Our business is dependent on our land,” said Rosemary Gambino of Waller County, president of the Texas CattleWomen. “I plead with you that you not concrete over my ranch.”
When Williamson, a Perry appointee, and other transportation commissioners appeared before the Senate panel, Sen. John Carona, the committee chairman, asked questions he said were on the minds of many in the room.
Carona noted that William-son and Perry were close, and Williamson acknowledged that, while offering praise for the governor’s decision to tackle the state’s transportation problems.
“I do think a great deal of him because I think he stuck his neck way out before an election,” the commissioner said. “And I will say, I find him to be remarkably evenhanded about solving problems.”
Carona wondered about the cost and feasibility of widening I-35, possibly with loops around heavily congested metropolitan areas.
Williamson showed de-tailed maps about the population and congestion along I-35. He said 83 percent of the state’s population lives in a crescent covering the urban areas of Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston.
Carona, a Dallas Republican, also said many Texans have been skeptical of the toll road project because of the aura of secrecy surrounding it.
“When information isn’t shared, when open records are ignored or are challenged in court, people are always led — it’s human nature — people are led to believe that there’s some other agenda,” Carona said.
Some sections of the state’s contract with the Spanish-American consortium Cintra-Zachry to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor were kept secret for 18 months and were the subject of a court case brought by the company and the Texas Department of Transportation. That lawsuit was filed after the attorney general ruled the contract was a public record.
The secret sections of the contract were finally made public in September.
State auditors testifying before the Senate committee Thursday mentioned that open-records dispute and cited findings from a report they released last week on the Trans-Texas Corridor. They noted that some invoices at the transportation department were coded incorrectly and listed under engineering when they were for public relations.
“Oooohhhh,” many in the audience said in unison, in disapproving fashion.
Legislature is getting on board with the citizens to stop the Corridor. In addition the senate commitee hearings, Rep. Kolkhorst (Brenham) has drafted a bill, HB 1881, repealing the Trans Texas Corridor.
Please voice your support of HB 1881 and elimination of the TTC.
Read the full text of HB 1881 - Repeal of the Trans Texas Corridor here.
Find your senator here. Tell them how you feel.
Here's the AP article from the San Angelo Standard-Times.
KELLEY SHANNON, The Associated Press
Friday, March 2, 2007
AUSTIN — Before a crowd of people angry over the Trans-Texas Corridor, state senators grilled transportation commissioners Thursday about the huge toll road project and why Interstate 35 couldn’t be widened instead.
The commissioners gave some financial estimates of expanding the interstate and said they would provide more.
Commission chairman Ric Williamson said the dense population along the interstate and lack of public money were reasons to opt for the Trans-Texas Corridor, a superhighway expected to be built by a private firm.
In all, the project is envisioned as a $184 billion 4,000-mile network of toll roads, rail lines and utilities.
Its first segment would run a few miles east of and parallel to Interstate 35 down the center of the state. That plan has infuriated rural landowners in its path who stand to lose farms and ranches and longtime family property.
Their complaints figured heavily into the Texas governor’s race last year — the Trans-Texas Corridor is a pet project of Gov. Rick Perry — and they highlighted Thursday’s daylong public hearing of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.
“We’re ranchers. Our business is dependent on our land,” said Rosemary Gambino of Waller County, president of the Texas CattleWomen. “I plead with you that you not concrete over my ranch.”
When Williamson, a Perry appointee, and other transportation commissioners appeared before the Senate panel, Sen. John Carona, the committee chairman, asked questions he said were on the minds of many in the room.
Carona noted that William-son and Perry were close, and Williamson acknowledged that, while offering praise for the governor’s decision to tackle the state’s transportation problems.
“I do think a great deal of him because I think he stuck his neck way out before an election,” the commissioner said. “And I will say, I find him to be remarkably evenhanded about solving problems.”
Carona wondered about the cost and feasibility of widening I-35, possibly with loops around heavily congested metropolitan areas.
Williamson showed de-tailed maps about the population and congestion along I-35. He said 83 percent of the state’s population lives in a crescent covering the urban areas of Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston.
Carona, a Dallas Republican, also said many Texans have been skeptical of the toll road project because of the aura of secrecy surrounding it.
“When information isn’t shared, when open records are ignored or are challenged in court, people are always led — it’s human nature — people are led to believe that there’s some other agenda,” Carona said.
Some sections of the state’s contract with the Spanish-American consortium Cintra-Zachry to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor were kept secret for 18 months and were the subject of a court case brought by the company and the Texas Department of Transportation. That lawsuit was filed after the attorney general ruled the contract was a public record.
The secret sections of the contract were finally made public in September.
State auditors testifying before the Senate committee Thursday mentioned that open-records dispute and cited findings from a report they released last week on the Trans-Texas Corridor. They noted that some invoices at the transportation department were coded incorrectly and listed under engineering when they were for public relations.
“Oooohhhh,” many in the audience said in unison, in disapproving fashion.
February 27, 2007
Legislature working for themselves
House votes to raise members' budgets
By R.A. DYER and JOHN KIRSCH
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERS
AUSTIN — In some of their first substantive acts since convening the 80th Texas Legislature, House members on Friday voted themselves access to more tax dollars and rejected a slew of new ethics rules.
The votes come after a legislative session in which lawmakers called for state agencies to trim their budgets and after a year marked by indictments and criminal investigations into lobbying.
On Friday, the House rejected amendments that would have banned lobbyists and people under indictment from areas of the Capitol barred even to the public during floor debates.
Rep. Jim Dunnam, a Waco Democrat who proposed some of the restrictions, said House members needed to reduce the influence of “superlobbyists.” “Do you really want to be on the record that a registered lobbyist should have better access to the powers of government than your constituents?” he said.
He proposed an amendment that would have barred registered lobbyists from a Capitol hallway behind the House chambers when the House is in session. The House rejected it 70-62.
Lawmakers also rejected a measure that would have required them to identify any lobbyist or lawmaker with whom they do business.
“If I’m in an oil and gas deal with lobbyists, I think my constituents ought to know about that,” said Dunnam, who also sponsored that measure. The House rejected it 88-52.
Also Friday, Forth Worth Democrat Lon Burnam did not win approval for his proposal to ban people under indictment from areas around the House chambers. That measure went down 99-37.
Asked afterwards about the votes, House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said many of the ethics provisions were either unworkable or unnecessary. For instance, he questioned how officials would identify people under indictment walking around the Capitol.
“People have good ideas, but it’s got to be where it can work,” Craddick said.
The ethics amendments would have been included in new House rules that the chamber adopted Friday as one of its first orders of business during the 140-day session.
But even before House members considered those rules, they overwhelmingly voted to increase their own office budgets.
Under a measure offered by Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, members’ budgets would go from $11,250 to $12,250. That would be about $150,000 per month in extra taxpayer expenditures.
According to the House clerk’s office, the measure was adopted 123-19, with all Tarrant County lawmakers voting in favor except Republican Reps. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Bill Zedler of Arlington and Rob Orr of Burleson. Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, was absent.
Supporters said they need the money to help pay for growing travel costs and other expenditures. But Rep. Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton, an opponent, said lawmakers should look to economize.
“If you’re going to ask for caps for counties and cities to control your spending, then I think we ought to control our spending — these are the citizens’ money, and I think we need to give it back to them,” said the Mauriceville Republican.
Several measures intended to limit Craddick’s power also ended in defeat. Among them was an amendment from Burnam that would guarantee that any legislation with 100 sponsors would automatically get a hearing on the House floor.
Because of House rules, even popular legislation sometimes dies before going to the full chamber. Another failed measure would have limited the discretion of the House speaker to appoint members to the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
This week, Craddick faced a challenge to his control of the 150-member House. It was the first such challenge to a sitting House speaker in over a generation. Lawmakers did, however, adopt a measure limiting the values of gifts that one lawmaker can give to another to $75. House members typically give gifts to committee leaders at the end of legislative sessions.
Also Friday, freshman lawmaker Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, sponsored an amendment that would require that all votes for the final passage of bills be officially recorded and available to the public on the Internet within an hour. The amendment passed.
By R.A. DYER and JOHN KIRSCH
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERS
AUSTIN — In some of their first substantive acts since convening the 80th Texas Legislature, House members on Friday voted themselves access to more tax dollars and rejected a slew of new ethics rules.
The votes come after a legislative session in which lawmakers called for state agencies to trim their budgets and after a year marked by indictments and criminal investigations into lobbying.
On Friday, the House rejected amendments that would have banned lobbyists and people under indictment from areas of the Capitol barred even to the public during floor debates.
Rep. Jim Dunnam, a Waco Democrat who proposed some of the restrictions, said House members needed to reduce the influence of “superlobbyists.” “Do you really want to be on the record that a registered lobbyist should have better access to the powers of government than your constituents?” he said.
He proposed an amendment that would have barred registered lobbyists from a Capitol hallway behind the House chambers when the House is in session. The House rejected it 70-62.
Lawmakers also rejected a measure that would have required them to identify any lobbyist or lawmaker with whom they do business.
“If I’m in an oil and gas deal with lobbyists, I think my constituents ought to know about that,” said Dunnam, who also sponsored that measure. The House rejected it 88-52.
Also Friday, Forth Worth Democrat Lon Burnam did not win approval for his proposal to ban people under indictment from areas around the House chambers. That measure went down 99-37.
Asked afterwards about the votes, House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said many of the ethics provisions were either unworkable or unnecessary. For instance, he questioned how officials would identify people under indictment walking around the Capitol.
“People have good ideas, but it’s got to be where it can work,” Craddick said.
The ethics amendments would have been included in new House rules that the chamber adopted Friday as one of its first orders of business during the 140-day session.
But even before House members considered those rules, they overwhelmingly voted to increase their own office budgets.
Under a measure offered by Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, members’ budgets would go from $11,250 to $12,250. That would be about $150,000 per month in extra taxpayer expenditures.
According to the House clerk’s office, the measure was adopted 123-19, with all Tarrant County lawmakers voting in favor except Republican Reps. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Bill Zedler of Arlington and Rob Orr of Burleson. Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, was absent.
Supporters said they need the money to help pay for growing travel costs and other expenditures. But Rep. Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton, an opponent, said lawmakers should look to economize.
“If you’re going to ask for caps for counties and cities to control your spending, then I think we ought to control our spending — these are the citizens’ money, and I think we need to give it back to them,” said the Mauriceville Republican.
Several measures intended to limit Craddick’s power also ended in defeat. Among them was an amendment from Burnam that would guarantee that any legislation with 100 sponsors would automatically get a hearing on the House floor.
Because of House rules, even popular legislation sometimes dies before going to the full chamber. Another failed measure would have limited the discretion of the House speaker to appoint members to the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
This week, Craddick faced a challenge to his control of the 150-member House. It was the first such challenge to a sitting House speaker in over a generation. Lawmakers did, however, adopt a measure limiting the values of gifts that one lawmaker can give to another to $75. House members typically give gifts to committee leaders at the end of legislative sessions.
Also Friday, freshman lawmaker Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, sponsored an amendment that would require that all votes for the final passage of bills be officially recorded and available to the public on the Internet within an hour. The amendment passed.
February 16, 2007
Mandatory STD vaccine for 6th grade girls in Texas
Gov. Rick Perry has gone around our state legislative process (the process for making laws) to make his own law. Beginning September 2008 Texas will administer "vaccination of all female children for HPV prior to admission to the sixth grade." HPV, is a sexually transmitted disease.
Moral arguments will abound. This is what bothers me:
1) Perry circumvented the state legislature to make his own law.
2) The only company that makes the vaccine, Merck, donated to Perry's 2006 campaign. In other words: Perry got bought off.
According to followthemoney.org, a campaign finance watchdog, Merck donated $6000 to Perry's campaign. Merck is the only producer of the vaccine and has been trying to bribe other states into mandating it. Also, one of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff.
The Texas House of Representatives have prepared a bill (HB 146) blocking Perry's order.
Please voice your support of the blocking bill. Also, voice your indignation with Perry.
Read the full text of Perry's executive order here
Read the full text of the House Bill blocking Perry's order here
Here is the AP article:
By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 2, 5:42 PM ET
AUSTIN, Texas - Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. By employing an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents' rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children.Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.
Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.
"The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer," Perry said.Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.
The governor also received $6000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor, as head of the executive branch, to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.
"He's circumventing the will of the people," said Dawn Richardson, president of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, a citizens group that fought for the right to opt out of other vaccine requirements. "There are bills filed. There's no emergency except in the boardrooms of Merck, where this is failing to gain the support that they had expected."
Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit objecting to the vaccine on religious or philosophical reasons. Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say such requirements interfere with parents' rights to make medical decisions for their children.
The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.
The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil — at $360 for the three-shot regimen — were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects. Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Susan Crosby, the group's president, also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.A top official from Merck's vaccine division sits on Women in Government's business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
As a side note, the general contractor for the Trans-Texas Corridor, Zachry donated heavily to Perry's campaign also. The Zachry Corporation; it's CEO, principal, chairman, and president all donated a total of $60,000 to Perry's campaign.
Moral arguments will abound. This is what bothers me:
1) Perry circumvented the state legislature to make his own law.
2) The only company that makes the vaccine, Merck, donated to Perry's 2006 campaign. In other words: Perry got bought off.
According to followthemoney.org, a campaign finance watchdog, Merck donated $6000 to Perry's campaign. Merck is the only producer of the vaccine and has been trying to bribe other states into mandating it. Also, one of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff.
The Texas House of Representatives have prepared a bill (HB 146) blocking Perry's order.
Please voice your support of the blocking bill. Also, voice your indignation with Perry.
Read the full text of Perry's executive order here
Read the full text of the House Bill blocking Perry's order here
Here is the AP article:
By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 2, 5:42 PM ET
AUSTIN, Texas - Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. By employing an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents' rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children.Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.
Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.
"The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer," Perry said.Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.
The governor also received $6000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor, as head of the executive branch, to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.
"He's circumventing the will of the people," said Dawn Richardson, president of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, a citizens group that fought for the right to opt out of other vaccine requirements. "There are bills filed. There's no emergency except in the boardrooms of Merck, where this is failing to gain the support that they had expected."
Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit objecting to the vaccine on religious or philosophical reasons. Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say such requirements interfere with parents' rights to make medical decisions for their children.
The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.
The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil — at $360 for the three-shot regimen — were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects. Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Susan Crosby, the group's president, also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.A top official from Merck's vaccine division sits on Women in Government's business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
As a side note, the general contractor for the Trans-Texas Corridor, Zachry donated heavily to Perry's campaign also. The Zachry Corporation; it's CEO, principal, chairman, and president all donated a total of $60,000 to Perry's campaign.
February 14, 2007
Police and firefighters are often killed or injured when working incidents in streets. Being hit by a car driven by someone intoxicated is even more senseless. One state representative wants to make penalties stiffer for motorist who kill/injure fire and police personnel while driving intoxicated.
Please voice your support of Texas HB 1212
You can find out how to contact your state representative here:
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/welcome.php
The full text of the bill is here: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/doc/HB01212I.doc
Drivers who hurt officers targeted
By JOHN MORITZ
STAR-TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU
AUSTIN - Drunken drivers who injure or kill an on-duty public safety officer would face longer prison sentences under legislation filed Monday by freshman Rep. Paula Pierson of Arlington and dedicated to the memories of two Tarrant County police officers killed by alcohol-related crashes. Pierson said her first bill is named for Darren Medlin, a Grapevine police officer killed in June 2004 when he was struck by a car during a traffic stop on Texas 121, and Dwayne Freeto, a Fort Worth patrol officer who died Dec. 17 while assisting a motorist with a flat tire on Interstate 35W. Both men were 34, military veterans and the fathers of young children.
Pierson's House Bill 1212 would take intoxication assault from a third-degree felony to a second-degree felony if a police officer or firefighter were injured. The prison sentence, now two to 10 years, would increase to two to 20 years. The maximum fine, $10,000, would not change.
Intoxication manslaughter involving a police officer or firefighter would go from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony, which carries a prison sentence of five to 99 years and a maximum fine of $10,000.
"If you make the roads safer for police and firefighters, you make the roads safer for everyone," he said.
Please voice your support of Texas HB 1212
You can find out how to contact your state representative here:
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/welcome.php
The full text of the bill is here: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/doc/HB01212I.doc
Drivers who hurt officers targeted
By JOHN MORITZ
STAR-TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU
AUSTIN - Drunken drivers who injure or kill an on-duty public safety officer would face longer prison sentences under legislation filed Monday by freshman Rep. Paula Pierson of Arlington and dedicated to the memories of two Tarrant County police officers killed by alcohol-related crashes. Pierson said her first bill is named for Darren Medlin, a Grapevine police officer killed in June 2004 when he was struck by a car during a traffic stop on Texas 121, and Dwayne Freeto, a Fort Worth patrol officer who died Dec. 17 while assisting a motorist with a flat tire on Interstate 35W. Both men were 34, military veterans and the fathers of young children.
Pierson's House Bill 1212 would take intoxication assault from a third-degree felony to a second-degree felony if a police officer or firefighter were injured. The prison sentence, now two to 10 years, would increase to two to 20 years. The maximum fine, $10,000, would not change.
Intoxication manslaughter involving a police officer or firefighter would go from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony, which carries a prison sentence of five to 99 years and a maximum fine of $10,000.
"If you make the roads safer for police and firefighters, you make the roads safer for everyone," he said.
November 07, 2006
habla Chinese?
Some of you have heard me mention a Chinese takeover of America. Here are 3 articles that spell that out. I suggest reading them in the order shown below.
#1 For starters....
#2 (This is a .pdf so you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it)
#3 Here's a hypothetical situation that ties it all together.
#1 For starters....
#2 (This is a .pdf so you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it)
#3 Here's a hypothetical situation that ties it all together.
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